Despite national efforts to promote gender equality and challenge negative attitudes towards women, many girls in rural Zambia are growing up in a context of poverty and discrimination. All too often, their rights are denied and their opportunities are restricted. Zambia has strong policies and laws in place to protect women’s rights, but new approaches are needed to transform attitudes and promote practical change.

United Purpose is supporting a local partner organisation, EduSport, to deliver the exciting ‘Go Sisters!’ project, which works across five provinces in Zambia. It uses community-based netball and football leagues to run leadership development opportunities for marginalised girls, helping them to grow in confidence, develop life skills, improve their literacy and access vocational and entrepreneurial training.

Girls’ rights are also promoted within local communities by building trust with the girls’ families and running community tournaments to raise awareness of girls’ rights and provide a safe space to challenge negative gender stereotypes.

Naomi’s story

For girls living in rural communities, where attitudes to gender roles are often very traditional, opportunities to develop leadership skills can be few and far between. Through sport, Go Sisters provides girls with practical opportunities to grow in confidence as they coach and mentor their peers.

Because of the Go Sisters programme, I can say that I now know who I am and I believe in myself and work hard - Naomi, peer leader

Naomi (in a white t-shirt) listens to the facilitator at a health workshop

This has proved to be a positive experience for 18-year-old Naomi, an active member and peer leader at the Go Sisters Action Team in Livingstone, Southern Province. In her own words, she recounts how her involvement in Go Sisters has changed her life:

“Personally, it wasn’t easy for me to become a leader in my community and [to get into] the placement school where I now go to conduct sports and life skills sessions. Most of the secondary schools are far from our communities, making it unsafe for most of the girls who are travelling long distances every day to attend classes. I come from a very low-income home and often people will not recognise you as an important person because of your background.

“My life in sport has taught me to be patient, nice to people around me and [to] become focused, especially with my career. I am a role model to the other girls at the school, where I conduct sessions, and [also in] my community. I don’t look at where I come from – anyone can be anything good if they want.

“My upbringing has not been easy, struggling to get to school and not knowing who I really was. But because of the Go Sisters programme I can say that I now know who I am and I believe in myself and work hard.

“Through Go Sisters’ entrepreneurship workshops that I participate in, I have learnt how to start a business and access grants or loans from financial institutions. Through the knowledge I have gained, I now manage a small business, selling makeup and clothes to my fellow girls and other community members. Sometimes I sell at big events, such as tournaments and festivals. I am now able to save for college and support my family.”

More about UP's work:

Ensuring inclusiveness, equality and empowering people with disabilities are at the heart of this year’s International Day of Persons with Disabilities - marked on December 3rd, 2018. As part of the ASPIRE programme in Malawi, United Purpose is helping to break the cycle of poverty, by increasing resilience and aiming to ensure that no one is left behind. Working closely with local authorities, UP is making sure that individuals like Yohane Kankhulungo receive the targeted support they need.

This year’s World AIDS Day, which marked its 30th anniversary on 1 December, aimed to highlight the importance of being HIV-status aware and called for barriers to HIV testing to be removed. In Uganda, United Purpose’s partner organisation, KCA (Keep a Child Alive) and the Alive Medical Services are challenging these barriers; working on the front line in the fight against AIDS, they are supporting people like Harriet and Esther to lead fulfilling lives.

In North West Cameroon, increasing competition for access to land and water continues to create conflict and stir up hostility between cattle herders and crop farmers. But herder Alhadji Hamadam Melam has been at the forefront of an initiative to give peace a chance in his local community of Njah-Etu, in the Momo area.

As part of a wider project to increase Irish potato production in Mozambique, we’ve been working with inmates at Tinonganine Open Prison. This forward-looking collaboration has been a rewarding venture, both for inmates as they transition back into the community, and the community itself.

For many women in rural Ghana, entrepreneurial ambitions are all too regularly crushed by unequal access to banks and investment. Over the last six years, we’ve been supporting groups of women to revolutionise their own ability to kick-start enterprise, by setting up Village Savings groups.

In the village of Boyerbanga in Khulna District, Southwest Bangladesh, the ground is shifting. For Kakon Mollick, a new business opportunity has laid the foundations for more than just greater financial security for him and his family of three.

United Purpose’s (UP) programme in Brazil is campaigning to raise awareness of the power of participation in community organisations. Now in its second year, we’re featuring some of the incredible community group members participating in the campaign to find out how collective action has changed their lives.

In June, our four year Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) project in Phalombe district, in the Southern Region of Malawi came to an end. Since the project began, we’ve seen a massive 77% decrease in cases of cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery in the area. In light of this big win, we caught up with Maxwell Chiputula, Manager of the project, to reflect on the successes of our unique Civil Society approach.

As the men’s World Cup draws to a close, we chat to Dorcas Amakobe – Executive Director of our partner organisation, Moving the Goalposts – about the possibilities football has opened up for young girls and women in Kenya.